Electronic presentations, particularly electronic slide presentations (hereinafter, “slide presentations”), have become key tools for conveying information to an audience during a speech or other presentation. In a typical slide presentation, a presenter utilizes a presentation program on the presenter's computing device (e.g., laptop computer) to create and arrange multiple slides and then present the slides to an audience beginning with the first slide and ending with the last slide. Typically, the presentation materials that are presented to the audience are also shown on the presenter's computing device.
During the presentation, the presenter may receive some unexpected instant message or mandated system update (e.g., operating system update) that is displayed on the presenter's computing device, and consequently, may be displayed to the audience along with the presentation materials. Such notifications interrupt the presentation and may not be easily turned off.
As a result, presenters attempt to close applications running on the presenter's computing device that are known to have notifications. However, there are notifications that cannot be anticipated (e.g., security scan requirements, operating system updates, etc.). Also, there may be applications that the presenter needs to keep active which may receive/generate notifications. Furthermore, even if the presenter closed all the applications except for the presentation program, the presenter may still receive notifications, such as notifications pertaining to the operating system or to the security of the computing device.
While there have been attempts to address receiving notifications during a presentation, there is not currently a means for preventing such notifications from being displayed while allowing the presenter to continue to use applications during the presentation that may receive/generate such notifications.